Walking Tours in Berlin

There is a wide variety of tour companies with a wide variety of price points in Berlin. You can pick one or you can mix and match according to your interests. If a private guide is within your budget and you want someone who is thoughtful but also filled with personal stories, I strongly recommend Robert Sommer. When the wall fell, he was the 15-year-old son of a fairly high ranking East German bureaucrat living in East Berlin. He went on to earn a PhD in history and has a particular interest in the Holocaust. I did a tour with him through Context Travel that compared Cold War architecture in East Berlin and West Berlin (mostly a walking tour with an S ride from the former East Berlin to the former West Berlin), and it was wonderful. Robert is friendly, articulate and very knowledgeable, but he is also able to present information in a manner that is easy to understand. Robert is an excellent guide in terms of guide skill, but his personal experience as a teen and young adult in Berlin make a tour with him almost priceless.

I also like Context Travel for its small groups (maximum of 6; usually less) and its Master's- and PhD-level guides. Their prices reflect the experience, though, so they are certainly more expensive than a $15 tour with 20-30 participants and one guide (though many on the forum report very much enjoying those tours, too).

Berlin is awesome. I'm glad you are going to see it. Happy planning!

Am fond of Insider Tours for themed group tours at a low cost. If you are looking for private, try Lee Evans from Berlin and Beyond (who helped Rick write the Germany guide book) or Jeremy the Berlin Expert.
https://www.insidertour.com/
http://www.berlinandbeyond.de/
http://www.theberlinexpert.com/

There is also berlinwalks.de The Original Berlin Walks that have Third Reich Tours and Cold War tours. All the tour companies usually go to the same sites on the tours so it really doesn't matter which one you choose.

Halbe, interesting? You're referring to the Halbe-Kessel, that horrific encirclement battle.

To get a more comprehensive view of Nazi/WW2 sites, you have to be motorized or be willing to take public transportation since military sites, battlefield memorials, military cemeteries, Allied bombing victims' cemeteries, museums pertaining to the war, etc, etc are located all over, all spread out, ie in Spandau, Karlshorst, Mitte, Potsdam, (location of the war cemetery), Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf, etc.

That's not even including going out to Seelow and Neuhardenburg, or Berlin-Krampnitz, where the Army Panzer Schule was, and taken over the Soviets. On the eastern side the Soviets took over Wünsdorf-Zossen, site of OKH for the German Army.

I saw the newly set-up museum Wünsdorf in 1999 when the premises still had remains of the German Army presence and obviously the presence of the Soviets who only pulled out for good in 1992. Wünsdorf was also the site of the Panzer Schule in the greater Berlin area.

A great thanks to all of you for the great leads on tours. I did reach out to Mr. Sommer and have scheduled two separate tours with him that cover my Third Reich, Cold War and post reunification interests in Berlin. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this. Perhaps a little beyond what I had budgeted, but I agree that an opportunity to experience Berlin with someone of his depth of knowledge and profound connection to some of these events truly is "priceless."

The Berlin and Beyond tours look very intriguing as well, especially the Prenzlauer Berg tour. Maybe spend a few hours with the guide, then explore around the neighborhood myself for the afternoon. It seems that this would be a great tour to see looking part of Berlin that has a lot of the pre-WWII facade still standing.

Anyways, I'll be sure to post a trip report. I'm incredibly excited for this and greatly appreciate the recommendations.

"...pre-WW2 facade still standing." If you're after evidence of Prussian history in Berlin, it's there to be seen. Numerous examples of it in Mitte, Köpenick, Charlottenburg, Spandau, etc. Basically, you need know where to look.

J. Everett... I'm excited that you have set up a couple of tours with Robert. They will be great. I love using private guides, especially native guides when possible... IMHO, they add a lot to travel.

I also agree that the Prenzlauer Berg tour looks very good. It's a great area of Berlin. A few ideas for the district...

The excellent, free Museum in der Kulturbrauerei has a permanent exhibit on Daily Life in the DDR plus, usually, a special exhibit that often is not related to the DDR. There is a display near the restroom at the entrance that has tourist information for the district, including a map created by locals with themed walks. This info is also available in the TI located elsewhere in the Kulturbrauerei.

Prenzlauer Berg is a part of the Berlin borough of Pankow. Museum Pankow has 3 locations -- the main location in a former school near Kollwitzplatz with an exhibit on the history of the historically working-class area (nearly all in German but special exhibits are often quite interesting and have more English), a master carpenter's flat from around 1900 (English pamphlet available), and a factory owner's flat from around 1900 (no English). If you wonder what a German public library looks like, there is one near the main location of Museum Pankow. The area around the factory owner's flat is furthest from Berlin's city center and has some impressive pre-WWII architecture such as the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium.

I love parks. There are many parks in the area where you can watch Berliners being Berliners, including Mauer Park and Kollwitzplatz. A few long blocks from Kollwitzplatz is Volkspark Friedrichshain with its Märchenbrunnen, a fountain opened in 1913 that features fairy tale characters.

There are a ton of dining options in the area, including outdoor dining. An unusual dining experience is Nocti Vagus, a "dark restaurant" where you eat dinner in pitch black. You are led to your seat by your visually-impaired server. The idea is that other senses are accentuated (including taste) by removing visual stimuli.

Berlin-Pankow is the location of two big historical sites... the huge traditional Jewish cemetery in Weissenfels. It is the largest in Germany. It goes on for blocks.

The other historical site in Pankow is the Soviet War Memorial, of which there are three in Berlin...Treptow, and on Strasse des 17. Juni (formerly known as Charlottenburg Chausee, named after the queen), down from the Tierpark. . I've seen these two but not the one in Pankow.